Voices of Jihad - RAND Corporation

was part of the sweeping campaign of arrests that followed the escape
of the three brothers.
“Another courageous battle took place. As soon as the force commander,
a Colonel in the State Security Intelligence Department,
knocked on the door, he came under a hail of sound bombs that the
brothers had prepared. Isam al-Qamari attacked him with a kitchen
knife. The officer escaped, leaving his pistol behind. The other soldiers
and officers retreated in fear. Isam picked up the pistol of the force
commander and the brothers started running down to the street.
“At the corner of the street, Isam al-Qamari engaged in a battle
with the police force to cover his brothers’ escape. He was hit in the
stomach, and he fell. His companions returned to carry him, but he
declined and gave them the pistol he had. He ordered them to continue
to run away. He died on the spot.” (al-Zawahiri, 2001)
The Story of Abu Hajer
“. . . as you know, in those days, 13 years ago . . . everybody in those
days heard what was going on in Afghanistan. The mosques were talking
[about it] with support from the government, and so were the proselytizers
and the television. Jihad was favorable in those days, and the
government was subsidizing [airline] tickets for people. We had relatives,
neighbors, loved ones, and friends who had gone to the land of
jihad, so our ears were always listening for news about our brothers and
the accomplishments of the jihad fighters in Afghanistan.
“The truth is that one’s spirit was pining for one to be with the jihad
fighters, but there were barriers. Some jurists used to say, and some still
do, that jihad is not mandatory in Islam, and that a person may not go
without the permission of his parents. Of course we tried to convince
[our parents], but all of these attempts failed. Then one sheikh guided
me to [the realization] that going to prepare [for the jihad] is mandatory
and that, as such, it did not require permission from one’s parents,
so I left for the jihad. . . .
“[Abu Hajer then tells of the battles he fought in Afghanistan:] The
fronts in which I have participated are: Afghanistan, then God was
generous to me and I joined the brothers in Algeria where I worked
with the equipment group, whose mission was to transport weapons
and equipment from Europe to Morocco, and then into Algeria. Our
job was to move these weapons and equipment. I stayed with this group
for [a number of] months, until the majority of the members of the cell
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